Haunting Sindh: SHC asked to suspend 40,000 ghost teachers
Petitioner wants the drawn salaries recovered and spent on public welfare
KARACHI:
A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday seeking the suspension of the thousands of ghost teachers in the province.
The petition, submitted by the NGO Amity International through its chairperson Advocate Mehfooz Yar Khan, cited the Sindh government and the education secretary as respondents.
Khan asserted that there were 40,000 ghost teachers across Sindh, according to the statistics presented by the provincial authorities before the Supreme Court recently. “These teachers were posted at government-run schools in various districts but they have been absent from their duties for a long time,” he said.
He claimed that 522 of these ghost teachers were individuals working for media organisations instead of discharging their duties at school, adding that this was a violation of not only the provincial service laws but the media regulations too.
“Under the law, all these ghost teachers are duty-bound to teach the students at the schools of their posting but they are not doing this,” said Khan. “They should either leave the government job or quit their private employment.”
In his plea, he said that the ghost teachers were wasting public money by drawing salaries without working. “This amounts to white-collar crime,” he stated, adding that the wages taken by these teachers should be recovered by the government and spent on public welfare.
Khan pleaded the court order the education secretary to suspend the 40,000 ghost teachers after issuing show-cause notices to them. The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing in a few days.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 3rd, 2014.
A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday seeking the suspension of the thousands of ghost teachers in the province.
The petition, submitted by the NGO Amity International through its chairperson Advocate Mehfooz Yar Khan, cited the Sindh government and the education secretary as respondents.
Khan asserted that there were 40,000 ghost teachers across Sindh, according to the statistics presented by the provincial authorities before the Supreme Court recently. “These teachers were posted at government-run schools in various districts but they have been absent from their duties for a long time,” he said.
He claimed that 522 of these ghost teachers were individuals working for media organisations instead of discharging their duties at school, adding that this was a violation of not only the provincial service laws but the media regulations too.
“Under the law, all these ghost teachers are duty-bound to teach the students at the schools of their posting but they are not doing this,” said Khan. “They should either leave the government job or quit their private employment.”
In his plea, he said that the ghost teachers were wasting public money by drawing salaries without working. “This amounts to white-collar crime,” he stated, adding that the wages taken by these teachers should be recovered by the government and spent on public welfare.
Khan pleaded the court order the education secretary to suspend the 40,000 ghost teachers after issuing show-cause notices to them. The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing in a few days.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 3rd, 2014.